The present disclosure relates to an apparatus, method and program for communication, and more particularly, to an apparatus, method and program for communication, which allow a reduction in power consumption.
In an Ethernet® network system, it is known to perform auto-negotiation to optimize communication (see for example, IEEE Std 802.3-2002 Section Two, “28. Physical Layer link signaling for 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s Auto-Negotiation on twisted pair”, 8 Mar. 2002, Pages 213-260, IEEE). In the auto-negotiation, a network device sends a pulse signal (a link pulse signal) to another network device with which to communicate to notify it of the allowable communication speed or the communication mode.
However, the auto-negotiation is for optimization of communication, but reduction in power consumption of network devices connected to each other is not taken into account.
In recent years, a great increase in the communication speed has been achieved, and a corresponding increase in the operating frequency and operating speed of network devices have been achieved. However, this results in an increase in power consumption, and thus there is now a need to reduce the power consumption.
In the case of a 10 Gigabit Ethernet® system according to the standard IEEE802.2ae established by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), it is required to use an optical cable as a transmission medium to achieve a high transmission speed. However, a network device adapted to transmit/receive an optical signal needs high power consumption, and thus it is very desirable to reduce the power consumption.